142nd APHA Annual Meeting and Exposition

Annual Meeting Recordings are now available for purchase

309637
AskCHIS Neighborhood Edition: California Healthography through a web-based dissemination tool

142nd APHA Annual Meeting and Exposition (November 15 - November 19, 2014): http://www.apha.org/events-and-meetings/annual
Tuesday, November 18, 2014 : 3:10 PM - 3:30 PM

David Grant, PhD , California Health Interview Survey, UCLA Center for Health Policy Research, Los Angeles, CA
Ninez Ponce, MPP, PhD , Department of Health Policy and Management, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA
Bogdan Rau, MPH , California Health Interview Survey, UCLA Center for Health Policy Research, Los Angeles, CA
Yueyan Wang, PhD , UCLA Center for Health Policy Research, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA
Hongjian Yu, PhD , UCLA Center for Health Policy Research, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA
Background: Local-level, high-quality, representative and comparable population-based health data are in high-demand, but expensive to produce, difficult to discover or access, and often simply do not exist. Building on the success of AskCHIS, the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research is developing a state of the science web tool, AskCHIS Neighborhood Edition, to effectively disseminate health estimates at finer geographic levels.

Objective: Develop an easy to use web tool that provides reliable health estimates at the zip code, city, county, legislative district, and state levels in California. Provide the ability to visualize data in a spatial context through thematic, choropleth mapping. The system will assist users in producing community health needs assessments, documenting medically underserved populations, assist local program planning, and provide critical information needed for evidence-based policy.

Methods: Once funding was obtained, the project team split into i) a web development team and ii) a statistical team. The web development team contracted with a firm with extensive experience on AskCHIS and another specializing in web-based cartography. A content expert panel assisted with health indicator selection and a scientific advisory committee of external experts in small area estimation guided the modeling techniques for production of the estimates.

Results: The principal web component borrowed heavily from the AskCHIS system. The development vendors will integrate web and mapping functions via a custom API. AskCHIS NE provides synthetic estimates based on CHIS and other local data sources through a statistical technique called small area estimation (SAE). Following several meetings of an expert advisory panel to refine the modeling approach (semi-parametric additive models with penalized spline function), production of small area estimates began, proceeding in tandem with the web and mapping components.  AskCHIS NE’s public release is planned for October 2014.

Discussion: The session concludes with a brief demo of AskCHIS NE.

Learning Areas:

Communication and informatics
Program planning

Learning Objectives:
Describe access and produce health estimates using a new, web-based query tool providing population health data throughout California at the zip code, city, county, legislative district, and state geographic levels. Identify the difference between direct and synthetic estimates and have a basic understanding of how small areas estimates are produced. Explain the motivation behind development of this new dissemination tool, the principal components of the system, and the data and technical resources required to produce it.

Keyword(s): Community Health Assessment, Evidence-Based Practice

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I am the director of the California Health Interview Survey and co-principal investigator of the AskCHIS Neighborhood Edition Project.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.